Welcome to the Able And Game recap of the Masterchef Australia Tuesday Night Immunity Challenge.

The voice over man says these actual words:
spread your wings and fry

Sashi, Jess, Sarah, Samira, Aldo all enter the Masterchef Kitchen. They are greeted by the judges and Shannon, who is not a superstar.




Will Sashi make history and win another pin?

Today there will be two rounds:
Round One everyone cooks and the winner goes through to Round Two
Round Two a Masterchef cook competes against a professional chef and hopefully beat them and win a pin.

Round One

The contestants are cooking with an ingredient that the judges love, especially when the skin is crispy. CRISPY SKIN PLEASE!

They are cooking chicken wings AND THINGS.



Jess is laughing because she is thinking about the chicken wing ice cream parfait panna cotta tart mousse thing she is going to make.

They have 45 minutes to bring them delicious wings and things.

Sarah is doing a fancy take on buffalo wings, which are deep fried wings topped in hot sauce and butter served with blue cheese dipping sauce. She is going to elevate it a little and turn it into a bread sauce, with compressed celery and apple. Bread sauce is soggy bread and I have a fear of soggy bread.

Jess is making spicy wings with a honey sauce. Her things has not yet been decided.

Sashi is making home style wings with a sambal, which he is adjusting for the judges and taking out some of the heat. They are not happy with being told they are soft when it comes to heat and question him on this saying if he plays around with it too much it might all go wrong.

Aldo is making spicy wings with spicy mayo.
George points to a bunch of wings and questions him on the quantity. Sure, the judges will be eating 5 wings and things dishes, but the 6 wings marinating don’t look enough. They wanted at least 10 wings per contestant.

Gary asks, in a way Gary possibly finds humorous but comes across as slightly patronising:
“are you just winging it?”

Aldo responds in the best way possible: vague, with a lot of positivity
“just laughing, smiling, I’ve got to be happy when I cook, I got to be funny”

Gary steps it up a notch,
“GO ON BE FUNNY!

Aldo takes it up a notch and tells Gary
“oh you look beautiful today”
then after much laughter and whooping from all but Gary, Aldo tells them “that is not a joke”.





Oh, Aldo is THE BEST.



Samira is making pomegranate molasses, ginger and other things that taste good, inspirited by her dad. Matt then yells no prizes for second place, the winger takes all.




Sarah is getting flustered.
She is prepping her garnish of compressed apple and celery. Is this a thing? Can a garnish be a thing in wings and things? George asks if she has pre-treated her wings prior to their deep frying. Cuts of a confused looking Sarah, then a cut to an ad break. This is an editing language known as creating drama. When the show returns Sarah is still flustered because she has forgot to marinate the wings.

Who looks like they are going to win this? I’m going to say Sashi, only because I saw him pouring 19 litres of oil into his deep fryer. He understands the judges need for crispy skin.

Jess has decided to do an apple salad as her thing.

Sashi has commenced deep frying. Shannon tells him MORE COATING! MORE CRISPY! Shannon knows how win back the judges favour after Gordon Week.

Samira probably overheard Shannon and is now regretting her decision to oven roast the wings. Will the be crispy enough?

Sarah is mixing her bread sauce, I keep thinking she is saying red sauce, then I realise, no it is saucy soggy bread.

THE PIN IS TORMENTING JESS. IT IS CALLING AT HER.


Tasting

Samira
Gary loves the look of the oven char.
Samira tells Gary he has food on his face.
Matt says smashing wings!

Sarah
Sarah didn't realise Shannon was also feeding at the Masterchef trough today and only provided three small wings.
Queue angry Gary:
WHERE’S ALL THE WINGS?
LIKE I NEED MORE WINGS! GIVE ME MORE!
GIVE ME A GENEROUS AMOUNT ALRIGHT!




Shannon looks unwanted, he knows they didn’t want him for Gordon week and now they don’t want him eating at the trough. George draws short straw and shares with Shannon.
Gary says they are yum. George says they are delicious.





Jess
Gary tells Jess he was getting excited seeing her fry those wings.
Jess said she didn’t really know what she was doing.





Aldo
His wings are delicious and succulent, but there is no seasoning in the salsa.
It isn’t bad but it isn’t the Aldo they know and love.

Sashi
They ask him how hot is the sambal?
Gary says he is up for anything. Sashi knows this is probably untrue and tells them the sambal is okay heat wise for him.
The judges love it and he is in the mix.


Results

We overhear the judges have a chat. The voting is split between Jess and Sarah.
Jess wins because Sarah didn’t feed the judges enough.




Round Two: The cook against the chef

Matt introduces the chef and she has a long CV and is from Sydney, it's Jacqui Challinor from Noma D in Surry Hills.

She enters the kitchen and seems, like some of the other chefs who come on the show, a normal person who looks wide eyed at the spectacle that is Masterchef and things WHAT THE FARK?

Ben tells us that even in the Masterchef kitchen professionals will feel the pressure. Last week Gordon proved this to be the case. Will Shannon take a leaf from Gordon's book and razz Jacqui up so she crumbles? Someone mentions that Shannon wants to “win” today so it is even 2 pins all between him and Gordon. How this has become a competition is beyond me.

The usual caper: Jess gets 75 minutes, Jackie gets 60. Jess chooses between two pantries. Jacqui gets locked in the pantry.

The two panties to choose between are:
small ingredients and big ingredients.

Eggs, weirdly are a big ingredient. Quail eggs are small. Jess is freaking out she doesn’t know what to choose.



Jess chooses big because of the eggs.
She is making a lime tart and she is going to attempt praline made from Brazil nuts, which Shannon tells her will be hard.

Jess is rushing her pastry.

Jacqui is let out from the pantry and is nervous.
She has said she is good at thinking on her feet, but there is no garlic. Shannon tells her times goes fast in the kitchen. She’s grabbed fennel and prawns. And a loaf of bread.




Shannon asks Jacqui if her usual style of good ingredients cooked simply will be enough? She sees right through it. He is trying to razz her.

Jess’s curd has split but she doesn’t have enough butter to make another one. Is butter a big ingredient? She is going to whip it back into shape.

Jacqui is still bummed she has no garlic.

Jess says time is not her best friend today. It’s just an acquaintance.

They start plating up. Jacqui is delicately putting prawns on the plate, Jess is torching her swiss meringue.

Tasting

Jacqui’s has made Barbecue king prawns, olive oil poached fennel, chilli and lime
It obviously not Jess’s dish.
Gary: I like the look of that, don’t you?
George wants to thank whoever made this dish because it is easy to plate up. Wait till he sees Jess’s three tarts. He doesn’t even have to do anything, Gary and Matt can just grab them off the plate.
Matt says the ingredient sings. Gary loves it and likes the reminder food doesn’t need frills to taste good.


Jess has made a Lime tart with brazil nut praline
George uses his fingers to place each tart on the plates. The other judges do not grab one themselves.
Matt says it might be the best bit of pastry they’ve had in the comp. This is the kind of tart they are looking for.
Matt does questions the amount of meringue, it is very sweet.

Results

Gary says the day couldn’t get any better because it started with his idea of heaven: chicken wings! And ended with two cracking dishes.



The judges asked who made what like it wasn’t obvious.

Jess
Gary 9 George 8 Matt 8
FINAL TALLY 25/30

Jacqui
Gary 10 George 9 Matt 9
FINAL TALLY 28/30

Jacqui’s prawns were perfectly cooked. Gary could eat that dish every day.

The judges commend Jess on her winner of a dessert.